Irish integration of Muslims ‘essential’ to avert violent sub-culture

THE state needs actively to integrate Muslims into society, to prevent an alienated and possibly violent sub-culture developing, Muslim experts have warned.

Senior British Muslims have said Ireland should learn lessons from Britain, where divisions between muslims and non-muslims have been allowed to develop.

“One of the key issues is to do with identity,” said Maajid Nawaz, former militant and executive director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank based in London.

“For example is being German an ethnicity or nationality, is being Irish an ethnicity or nationality? If we can’t fix these questions what we are going to end up with is having people we don’t believe belong to our group. Therefore, of course, they will develop a sub-culture.”

Mr Nawaz, a former member of the Islamic revolutionary party Hizb ut-Tahir, said if you live in the US you’re an American. “In Germany, they call themselves Turks, not Germans, and the Germans call them Turks, so, on both sides, there’s almost a willing intellectual and community ghettoisation. If I was born in Ireland and said I was Irish, how would that be perceived?”

Speaking at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Mr Nawaz said Irish society should also address the grievances of muslims, “real or perceived”. He said: “Some are not real, but perceived, but are real enough to cause anger.”

Mr Nawaz, who is also a founder of Khudi, Pakistan’s first counter-terrorism youth democracy social movement, said the propaganda of Islamic extremists “needs to be countered”.

“Counter-narratives, as I would call it, need to be developed. It’s not propaganda, but debunking myths from extremists”. Muslim groups were “not doing enough” in this regard.

Lastly, Mr Nawaz said the influence of charismatic individuals had to be targeted, including by recruiting rival charismatic people.

“Human contact at the end of the day is what it comes down to. You can hear all the propaganda you want, but unless you are impressed by a leader or individual in the community or on the net that you’ve seen that’s what tips someone over to violence. We need to develop those leaders for counter-narratives.”

Usama Hasan, an Imam and senior lecturer at Middlesex University, called on the Irish state, including the Government and police, to enter into dialogue with “all the various possible Muslim communities”.

Also a former militant, Mr Hasan said contact should be made with more than just the established leaders.

“They should also empower Muslim women, one of the least empowered sections of society, and that’s not right. They are Irish citizens as well,” he said.